The family of a Long Island homeless teen recently named one of the top science students in the nation will now have a home to call their own.
Samantha Garvey, 17, is among 61 Long Island teens designated as semifinalists in the National Intel Science Search.
The Garvey family was evicted from their home in December after the teen's parents were injured in a car crash. Samantha, along with her mom, dad and two siblings, moved into a homeless shelter in Bay Shore two weeks ago.
"My dad has always said, 'Pick your head up and keep on going,'" the Brentwood High School teen told NBC New York. "That's the mentality."
Local government officials and members of the community have rallied to help the family, and during a Friday news conference, Suffolk County officials offered the family a rent-subsidized home. County Executive Steve Bellone said Garvey and her family could move into the house in about 10 days.
Garvey said this was the second time the family had to move to a shelter. Being homeless "has always been a motivator for me," she said.
That motivation has driven Garvey to become an honors student applying for admission to Brown University, among others, even as she struggled to find the cash to pay for her application.
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"You can sit around and mope, but what's that going to get you?" Garvey said.
The teen found relief in the 2½-year scientific study that culminated in her Intel entry.
The study focused on the effects of predators on mussels, and the work took her to a Long Island salt marsh and a research lab at Stony Brook University — all as she faced obstacles at home.
"Sam has the ability to focus amidst all of her troubles," said teacher Rebecca Grella. "Even in the darkness, she sees the light."
"I tell all my customers about her," said dad Leo Garvey, now working as a cab driver.
"We are so proud of her," said mom Olga Garvey, now working at a local hospital.
Samantha Garvey aspires to be a marine biologist. She hopes for more good news later this month, when Intel names its finalists for the competition's top prize of $100,000.
I posted this to my facebook. I wish there was a donate button. I truly hope she wins.
yeah i kinda wanna send her some cash to pay for her application at brown
I kinda wanna pay her tuition at Brown.
WSO scholarship?
U.S.A. U.S.A.
Beautiful, really. Guaranteed she gets serious $$ from a school, ¿no?
Glad I wasn't the only dbag with a USA chant going through my head.
I'd donate some currency as well.
yeah i was actually thinking would be cool if we could get a bunch of guys to chip in twenty bucks each to an account and ship it off to her maybe or something?!
can we get this frontpaged maybe?!
Done.
What an inspiring story. I really hope she becomes one of the 40 Intel finalists. Either way, she will get extremely generous financial aid from whatever college she goes to.
I'd chip in. She's an inspiration.
God damn.
Everyone deserves a chance. I would be happy to help.
Talk about perseverance... i'd chip in.
I'm in. Could use more attitudes like this.
I'd hit that.......donate button
What a crappy project. My submission involved using time series analysis to predict commodity prices and I didn't even get an honorable mention.
On another note,who knew Long Island had such amazing schools?
Dude, I am serious. I entered both the Siemens and Intel STS with a far superior project and didn't even get recognized in either one. Wow, she looked at a bunch animals that can barely move! She might as well have written about mating habits at a retirement home. I used graduate level statistics and wrote a C++ program.
I know (think) you're kidding eokpar, unless you're trying to make it to #3 on the soiled monkeys list.
shouldnt be that hard. Reach out to the newspaper publishing the story, get her contact info. Then collect donations through an established 501c3 nonprofit that will aggreggate the donations and cut her a check, less say a 50 bps admin fee.
okay sooo lets not turn this into a flame science contest... patrick would we be able to maybe aggregate it to a WSO thing and get her the cash as a wallstreetoasis scholarship or something?!
itd actually be kind of cool to get a small scholly fund going that would spurt out some cash even if its not tons to people overcoming adversity and becoming 'alpha' -- be they finance or not
YOU CAN PUT IT ON YOUR B SCHOOL RESUME IF YOU HELP OMG
If someone manages to organize it I'll give the money. eokpar02, I'm speechless.
eokpar02 FTMFW.
But I'm still down to donate to this homeless chick.
I am down to donate. Let me know once the scholarship fund is set up. This is very inspirational and a display of true American spirit unlike those Occupier returds out there.
then wheres my SB for my humor god dammit. oh wait system is broken ;[
maybe by the end of this long weekend can get this set up?!
im going to write some letters to brown's official email addresses, everyone else feel free to jump in and do the same
Someone mentioned that she is going to Brown. I hope that is not true. This chick should go to Stanford/MIT/Princeton.
And one very important point that everyone else seems to have forgotten is that even though she comes from poverty, I REALLY REALLY do hope she does not try to get an internship at Goldman. That would be such a loss for the United States, she should be curing cancer or something. Talented people like her should not be getting into finance. One of the criticisms of Wall St. that I agree with is that the pay differential are pulling the top talent of the country into finance, when they should have been doing something more productive for the society and country.
(A guy a few years ahead of me I knew in H.S. in my home country was an absolute Math and Science genius. He always said he wanted to work in NASA. He went to H/Y/P and majored in Physics and Math and now is working in GS AM. What a waste! He should have discovered a new planet or something and made our country proud)
Finance should be left to monkeys like us.
And yes, USA! USA! USA!
Seriously, what kid wants to be studying boring shellfish?
I have to disagree with you there. What I am worried about the is the financial industry taking up all the top class scientific talent away from "productive" pursuits. The top engineering talent from MIT should be helping the USAF build our 6th generation fighter, not trying to figure out when the EUR will trade 1:1 with the USD.
And there is one thing that make me say all this: CHINA.
No one has said we would only give her money if she goes to work in finance. Let her do whatever she wants.
I thought the IVYs waived app fees for kinds with financial needs. We should send someone out there to talk with her parents see how much they make. That may sound cheap or something however most of the IVYs give out free tuition to kids whos parents make below X number of dollars. I would prefer the scholarship money to go to a kid who needs it to afford school. Also we should write a clause in there that they can't go into finance lol.
On a different note, allow for anonymous donations. Some people would be more likely to donate that way.
I'd totally donate to her if I could. Hmmm...someone should set up something!
if anyone can find her info.. energy rodeo will be happy to pay for her application and books
my buddy got into harvard and his mom made under 55k and all in was free...
I don't think she will need any financial help from WSO. If her family's income is less than 60k, Brown will give her a fill ride.
Basically, I agree with monty09.
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